Gasconade County R-2 Superintendent Dr. Chuck Garner said at the Sept. 21 school board meeting that finances for the year are trending high, partly because tax revenue was sent later than usual.

“Looking at the financial statements, we are trending from July 1 to now, as a state, pretty solid compared to where we thought we might be,” Garner said. “One of the reasons was that the taxes. Since the tax date was pushed to July 15 — hitting after the fiscal year (July 1) — the taxes hit this fiscal year instead. We are running ahead of where we were this time last year because of that.”

Garner added that if tax dates stay the same in 2021, the district could see two tax revenues distributed in the same fiscal year.

“That would be two tax times in the same year — July 15 and then April 15,” Garner clarified.

Gov. Mike L. Parson withheld $200,000 from the school district in July as part of the revenue cuts brought on by the novel coronavirus COVID-19.

“He said his goal was to do the withhold one time and hopefully not have to do anymore for the rest of the year and not keep us on pins and needles every month wondering if we were going to get hit with that,” Garner said. “The financial statement we got for the month of September was true to form, with the state adequacy target at $6,375.”

The state adequacy target measures the number of funds distributed per student by the state.

“That is what was approved, so we are still just the $250,000 behind that we were in July, but we are not behind any additional,” Garner told the board of education.

Garner added that the district is still having “some sub issues.”

“As you can see on our monthly reports, that is running hot, but we thought that would be the case this month,” Garner said. “We are trying to accommodate for that.”

The board earlier this year authorized increasing the daily wages of substitute teachers in hopes of having more people readily available when needed.